TCU still finding its way ahead of Big 12 opener at Houston
A small number of college football teams entered the 2023 season with a clear identity.
For USC, the Trojans knew they would go as far as Caleb Williams and his arsenal of talented skill players will take them.
For the Georgia Bulldogs there may be a new starting quarterback, but the dominant defense and physicality up front has remained a staple of Georgia’s success.
For this version of TCU, the process is ongoing and coach Sonny Dykes actually sees a lot of similarities between the start of this season and last.
“Our performance thus far this season has probably mirrored our performance a bit from last season,” Dykes said Tuesday. “We had a better Colorado team (this year) and if we played a really good Colorado team last year I don’t know how we would’ve fared in that game, you know what I mean?”
Indeed the Horned Frogs had a slightly concerning performance in Boulder to start the season followed by a tune-up game against a FCS opponent.
Many last year pointed to the fourth game against Oklahoma as the turning point of the season, the moment TCU really started to understand how good it could be. Could the Big 12 opener at Houston be that moment for this year’s team?
“We’re still trying to find our way and I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Dykes said. “Three to four games we were probably a slightly below average football. We kept working and we had tremendous buy in and leadership. We had some guys that stepped up.”
Dykes is looking for more players to seize that moment this season. Proven commodities like Josh Newton, Andrew Coker and Brandon Coleman are easy for the staff to depend, but it’ll take more than just them to get TCU back to playing its standard of football.
“We were finding our way along last year and I think we’re doing some of that this year with a lot of new players,” Dykes said. “We think we have some players that can be very productive and good, but there are a lot of new faces. And I do feel like we’re making strides.”
Dykes said he felt like the whole team made a lot of progress from Colorado to Nicholls State, but the true litmus test will be against a Houston team coming off a loss.
When you add in the fact that this is Houston’s first Big 12 game and a night game, TCU has come in with the expectation that this could be a very hostile environment regardless of Houston’s reputation of struggling to draw fans.
“Houston is going to come out and play as well as they’re going to play all year probably,” Dykes said. “They’re going to be disappointed in their performance against Rice and they’re going to be excited about their first Big 12 game in their stadium. There’s a lot of reasons for those guys to be highly motivated.”
One of the many goals for TCU this weekend will be to match that enthusiasm to play. Dykes lamented how it didn’t seem like the Horned Frogs were as excited to play against Colorado and that lack of want to is one of the reasons the Horned Frogs were upset in Week 1.
So far, he’s liked what he’s seen from his team at practice.
“We had our best Tuesday practice of the year so far, I was really encouraged to see that,” Dykes said. Often times when Dykes said that last season, the Horned Frogs ended up playing some of their best football.
TCU may need it to get out of Houston with a victory.
“I think our guys are anxious and excited about playing,” Dykes said. “They’re ready to get out there to face a Houston team that is really excited to play us. It’s a great opportunity for them to bounce back and I think our guys know the challenge is going to be big for us on Saturday.”
